I was impressed with the Tommee Tippee perfect prep machine.

I have just spent a week at my daughters, to help out with new baby Ziggy. Daughter had tried to breast feed but decided it was not working our for her and so made the decision to put Ziggy onto bottles.

Things have moved on since my day, I made up enough milk for twenty four hours at a time by boiling the kettle, mixing in a sterilised jug,  leaving it to cool and storing in the fridge and then just reheated the bottle when required my placing the bottle in a jug of hot water. This is not acceptable practise these day despite the method having worked for parents for years.

Her neighbour told her about a machine that makes bottles in less than two minutes, and so she invested in one and wow I have to say I am VERY impressed, and so I thought I would share the machine with you in case you have not heard about it and know somebody who is due a baby any time soon.

the actual machine

The machine comes with one bottle complete with teat and lid to allow shaking of milk, a water filter so there is no need to pre boil water and a very comprehensive four page instruction leaflet.

instruction leaflet

Before you use for the first time you need to insert the water filter into the water tank, add water and run through a cleaning process, the leaflet tells you how to do this. The water filter lasts up to three months and will filter a hundred and fifty litres of water. They are readily available to buy when you need to replace.

water filter inside water reservoir 

There are various buttons to automate the processes. The three on the side are only for various maintenance procedures,

maintenance buttons on the side

The front has various warning lights and will alert you to when it recommends you undertake the maintenance and the middle jug symbol alerts you when the machine is needing refilled. It will not operate and this symbol lights up red.

warning lights on the front

The water tank is visible so you can see the level and can top up before the warning light comes on. It does suggest you use water from the fridge, but seemed a bit pointless when the water that is stored in the tank is going to be at room temperature. The bottles we made were still a safe temperature with the water at room temperature. 

visible water level

The machine is fairly compact and will easily sit on your worktop without taking up too much space,


It is height adjustable so that is takes any size of bottle.

easy height adjustment

with a tall nine ounce bottle

The selector on top allows you to choose how much milk to make, the minimum being four ounces, which with a new born baby could do with being slightly less but the initial burst of hot water is intended to kill any germs that may be in the formula and then the top up cools to the correct temperature so I appreciate that it probably will not work safely with any less.  The maximum being eleven ounces.

easy volume selector 

The machine lights up through the process, red for when adding hot water and green when adding cold. You have two minute from when you press to start to finish mixing and adding the cold, which is more than enough time.

just dispensed cold water

a real time video of the process.

The initial outlay for this machine may seem quite high, currently available between fifty seven and eighty pounds depending on where you buy it.  But I reckon you will recoop most if not all of the outlay in savings on your electricity bill by not having to boil the kettle over and over and over again.

My opinion - well worth every penny. No more screaming baby as they wait for the kettle to boil and cool, a real godsend in the middle of the night. Easy to use one handed and does not look out of place in the kitchen.

DD2 says if DD3 ever has a baby and is bottle feeding then she would buy one for her as a present.